OStatic’s open source theme of the day today is whether open source contributions are tracking with increases in open source usage, especially by businesses and organizations. In this post, we discussed how many organizations that now use open source aren’t giving back at all. On this topic, one of the more interesting projects currently running isn’t an open source software development project, but rather a coordinated effort to establish rules and guidelines for making contributions to open source. It’s called Project Harmony, is heavily backed by Canonical, and on June 23 its first year of notable effort to establish rules for open source contributions will arrive.
According to the Project Harmony page:
“Project Harmony is a community-centered group focused on contributor agreements for free and open source software (FOSS). As a group, we represent a diverse collection of perspectives, experiences, communities, projects, non-profit and for-profit entities. In that diversity, we share a common belief in the future of FOSS, and a common interest in using our skills (whether they’re legal, organizational, editorial, technical, or otherwise) to the benefit of collaborative FOSS communities.”
